94 RUMINATING ANIMALS. 



ture adapted to their living. In the Musk-ox, an 

 animal entirely an inhabitant of an arctic country, and 

 consequently often having occasion to traverse plains 

 covered with ice, the " under parts of the hoofs and 

 frog, shew a singular softish, transversely ribbed sur- 

 face, of a brown red colour, seemingly intended to se- 

 cure the foot on slippery snow or ice, the outer hoof is 

 round, the other crooked and pointed." * In some 

 African antelopes, the hoofs are low and flat, and in 

 the broad-hoofed antelope they extend almost an 

 inch laterally, a structure supposed to be of use to 

 those species which inhabit a trackless expanse of 

 sandy desert. The broad foot of the Rein-deer, 

 and some others which inhabit a country covered for 

 many months with snow, afford facilities when it is 

 newly fallen and yet soft, and give them great power 

 when exercising another mode of progression, by 

 swimming across the large lakes and rivers, which 

 otherwise would prove an knpassable march-fence. 

 " The rein-deer swim so swiftly, their broad feet, 

 struck with great force, impell them so fast in the 

 strongest currents, and across the broadest rivers, 

 that a boat well manned can scarcely keep pace with 

 them." 



The hair of the ruminating animals assumes also 

 different forms, according to circumstances, and is 

 produced in greater or less profusion. In all those 

 of the colder and temperate regions, it is abundantly 



" Hamilton Smith, Note to Griffith s Cuvier. 



